Every banknote carries a trade value, but also a potential future value (saving for the next holidays, for the desired car...). Every conversation carries the potential of a future business, a new invention, a new task, a chance.

Everyone carries an unused potential, an idea in mind, an observation, an untold story or observation, unused old coins in a drawer at home. The public art project Hucha de deseos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate! seeks to collect as many of these little individual potentials as possible. The art project brings them together to transform them into real things, collective projects and outcomes in the real world.

More than 136.000.000.000 Peseta(1) coins and 154.000.000.000 Peseta banknotes remain in people's private property. Hucha de deseos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate! collects the Peseta coins and banknotes in a public collection site in Plaza Puerta de Moros, La Latina neighborhood for the period of October 2009 to Mid February 2010.

Along with the peseta collection, the project asks the neighborhood and the users of the neighborhood (visitors of the Rastro market and markets, bars, cafes) actively, what they would like to realize with this public and worthless money in and for La Latina? The project collects and publishes extensively the wishes during the period of the event on a webpage, in the public media and in the neighborhood.

During the final days of February, the wishes are presented in a daily public art action from 15-18 h on Paseo de la Castellana. On 20 February 2010, everyone is invited to publicly sort the coins and banknotes before the transport on 22nd February 2010 to the Banco de España.

Poster in La Latina. Photographer: Mario Leal (january 2010)

On 27 February 2010 everybody who would like to be part of the decision making group, is invited to attend an Open Space event at Círculo de Bellas Artes. This one day event is used to decide collectively what will happen to the pesetas and how this will be put into action.

(1). The name is believed to have been derived from the Catalan word `peceta´, meaning `little piece´ (i.e., the diminutive of `peça´, `-eta´ being the usual feminine diminutive) [1]. However, it is also possible that the name is the diminutive of `peso´, an already-existing currency whose name derives from a unit of weight, this is consistent with such other currencies as the British pound.

Hucha de deseos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate! is an artproject that serves as a model to empower people. It offers a creative platform that allows people to work together, to develop a collaborative spirit and inclusion. It offers the experience of a collective decision making process. The art project combines an aesthetic appearance in form of a multi-medial collection site, a blog, posters and public interventions with a meaningful public debate. It creates a large forum for potential. By concentrating on one neighborhood, the project empowers people that live in close proximity and have a personal relationship, connectedness to the site and each other.

Hucha de deseos: ¡Todos somos un barrio, movilízate! is doing this through a number of artistic actions and interventions for a duration of 4 months from the end of October 2009 to end of February 2010. A multi-media collection is on a public place on Plaza Puerta de Moros for the duration of 4 months to collect coins, banknotes and wishes, also to record and listen to wishes.

For the same duration, an interactive blog and regular actions in the neighborhood are introducing the project. Action dates are:
29.10.-1.11.2009, 12.11.-16.11.2009, 12.12.-20.12. 2009 and 31.1.- 28.2. 2010.

During the final days of February, the wishes are presented in a daily public art action on Paseo de la Castellana. On 20 February 2010, everyone is invited to publicly the coins and banknotes and transport them to the Banco de España. On 27th February 2010 everybody who would like to be part of the decision making group, is invited to attend an Open Space event. This one day event will be used to decide collectively what will happen to the pesetas and how this will be put into action.